Cuplog

The Detroit Puppet Theater and Puppet Center has announced its 2008-2009 season. I’d like to see a few…

Last week, I missed a rare opportunity to see a professional puppeteer give a free performance at the Toledo Zoo as part of a four-day arts event that included performances by the Toledo Symphony, the Toledo Opera, and the Toledo Ballet. My schedule just wouldn’t permit it. It’s very important to me to see as many professional puppet shows as possible in order to learn more about the craft, derive inspiration, and support puppetry in general. I just need to learn about it farther in advance.

In June, I missed my chance to attend an international puppet festival in Nashville. It was not because I wasn’t aware of it early enough, but because I had some serious car trouble that also prevented me from attending a convention for which I had already registered. Next year I intend to see both, if my car’s health allows it. I need better luck.

I recall that there is a puppet theatre and museum in Detroit, Michigan, so maybe I’ll be able to see a puppet show before the end of summer. (Detroit Puppet Theater and Puppet Center is the place… and I just noticed that I missed a series of performances by a few days. Make that the entire 2007-2008 performance season… by a few days. The very last performance was August the 16th. I’m just not lucky.)

Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster are fully painted (and have been for several weeks), but I still need to make the bodies, which means shopping for fabric. I should probably get the sewing machine repaired, too… and learn how to use it. I might start on the Wolf Man tomorrow, or perhaps the Mummy.

Danny Boy has made lots of puppet heads for both the Monster Chiller Horror Puppet Show and Punch & Judy, but he hasn’t painted any of them.

I sculpted and painted a new Flying Monkey puppet head recently, and I will be making a new Wicked Witch of the West next. She will be a tricky one (appropriately enough).

As for photographs, I’m waiting until the puppets are completely finished.

I have made two new puppet heads along the lines of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein’s Monster. I’ll begin painting them tomorrow after work. I have been using acrylic paint, but I’m not satisfied with it (at least not the brands I’ve tried). It requires too many coats and consequently conceals too much of the finer sculpting detail. I could try using the paint made for miniatures, but that would probably be cost prohibitive.

Danny Boy has been making monster puppets, too. Today he asked me what he should make next and I said, “How about a gargoyle? I think I can come up with something funny about a gargoyle.” I have charged him with making the “Real Monsters” whilst I concentrate on the “Movie Monsters.” I think I’ll make Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man next. Oh, and I should write a play with all these characters at some point. (Or I could wait until the last minute.)

Due to certain obstacles of a financial or technical nature, my Halloween puppet show will not be ready in time for Halloween this year, but I will continue to work on it to the extent that I am able. The greatest obstacles are the lack of a microphone and a working sewing machine. This has reduced my momentum a bit, and I have not sculpted any new puppet heads for some weeks. Danny Boy still hasn’t painted any of the puppet heads he has finished.

We have been making puppets for two different shows. The Punch & Judy puppet heads are largely finished, but I’ve only made two of the Halloween puppets. Since several of the primary puppets are based on actual characters, I am searching for photographs to use as reference. In particular, I require Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster, and maybe Peter Lorre and Vincent Price as undetermined characters. One of the two finished puppet heads is an Igor based loosely on Marty Feldman. The other is a goblin not based on anyone.

If anyone knows of any books with good photographs of these actors, please let me know.

Other smaller puppet projects I am planning include making a new Wicked Witch of the West and a new Flying Monkey. I might even go so far as to write a new play inspired by the Wizard of Oz characters, which would, of course, necessitate the making of even more puppets.

We shall see…

Talk Like a Pirate Day was not much of a celebration for me. I failed to find the type of string I needed for the pirate marionette (I may have to order it), and I realized I am completely at sea as to how to costume it. This is supposedly National Sewing Month (as I learned upon visiting a fabric store), but I have neither knowledge nor a sewing machine. I must look into getting a cheap sewing machine as soon as possible, especially since I have many glove puppets that are ready to have their bodies made (or soon will be).

I thought about posting some photographs of puppets in progress, including the Mr. Punch and the Doctor I finished painting, but I’m having second thoughts about displaying them before they are complete. Perhaps if I had photographs of each stage of their creation I would post them, but just their headless selves? No, I think I’ll wait until I can present them in their full glory (or infamy, depending on one’s point of view).

Talk Like a Pirate Day is tomorrow (19 September), so I hope to have the pirate marionette finished today. I have a long way to go, and I am further frustrated by a desire to make a new head, since I made a mistake with the armature. I also need to shop for string — I hope to find Spiderwire.

I have finished painting three glove puppet heads and am in the midst of finishing a fourth. The hardest part for me is coming up: sewing the bodies.

There is so much to do, but I already want to work on several other things immediately, such as making a Judy puppet, making half of the puppets for the Halloween play, making new Wicked Witch of the West and Flying Monkey puppets, revising the Harry Potter puppet play, and writing several new puppet plays. In addition to the Halloween play, Daniel and I are discussing plans for a Mayan marionette play, and I’m still devising a plot for a science fiction parody that I hope to present at some conventions by next summer.

So, why am I sitting here writing this when I ought to be working on puppets?

Be seeing you…       :-?

Yesterday, I bought some professional modeling clay, so papier mäché is on the horizon. The local craft store was sold out of Super Sculpey, but it was also holding a 30% off sale on all clay and sculpting supplies, so I finally bought some Super Sculpey Firm, which is supposed to have a phenomenal capacity for capturing minute detail. There was only one other package left, and this is the last day of the sale, so maybe I’ll buy the last one before I go to work this afternoon. Danny Boy bought some acrylic paints so we could start painting puppet heads. We had used Liquitex acrylic paints in tubes for the Harry Potter puppets, which worked well, so we decided to use them again after my brief and unsuccessful experiment with Ceramcoat liquid acrylics (which are very inexpensive, but have poor texture for our purposes and a dull matte appearance).

In related news, I added Sculpey.com to the links page of the Cuparium.

Although I do not have any photographs of the puppet shows I performed at the Harry Potter release parties of 2005 and 2007, I have photographed the puppets individually and posted them on The Puppets of Harry Potter and the Land of Oz, located on the pictures page of the Cuparium.

Yesterday, I made a fourth Punch puppet head, and this will be the last one of Mr. Punch for a long time. It is the only one that truly looks like Punch, but the others are not a total loss. One will be painted appropriately and used as a goblin, imp, or or other mischievous creature; one will be used as an Igor for the Halloween puppet show I am working on; and the third, well, that remains to be seen. Now all I need to do is remake a Judy puppet (the first one is all wrong) and then I’ll have all the characters needed to perform The Comical Tragedy and Tragical Comedy of Punch & Judy.

The Halloween puppet show to which I alluded is the next big project I decided to undertake as of yesterday. There will be many puppets, at least two puppeteers probably, a larger puppet stage, and hopefully some sound effects or even music. It is untitled at this point, but I can reveal that it will include several famous movie monsters and many more real monsters! As Count Floyd would say, “Oooooooh, scary!” The trick is: Will it be finished before Halloween? And where will I perform it? Bah, technicalities!